Daniel Atkinson: The Vanguard Generation: African American Artists, 1880-1918

Event Details

Ethnomusicologist and Jack Straw Writers Program alum Daniel Atkinson continues our 2026 series of events featuring Jack Straw Writers in partnership with Humanities Washington’s Speakers Bureau. Join us in person, or stream live via YouTube or Facebook.

Discover the remarkable first generation of African American artists and performers whose contributions helped shape popular culture. Active after the Civil War and before World War I, many of these artists were the first in their families to be born out of bondage or to attend college—overcoming tremendous hardship in defiance of Jim Crow laws.

Using newly discovered documents from the era, this talk reveals the talent, ingenuity, conflicts, and solidarity of the “Vanguard Generation.”